
Contemporary approaches to psychopathy and sociopathy have focused on biological and genetic causes.

In this sense, the sociopath is a very modern sort of deviant. In many ways the sociopath is a cypher for many of the anxieties we have about the loss of community and living among people we do not know. The sociopath is like the nice neighbour next door who one day “goes off” or is revealed to have had a sinister second life. In a modern society characterized by the predominance of secondary rather than primary relationships, the sociopath or psychopath functions, in popular culture at least, as a prime index of contemporary social unease. It entails an incapacity for companionship ( socius), yet many accounts of sociopaths describe them as being charming, attractively confident, and outgoing (Hare, 1999). In this sense sociopathy would be the sociological disease par excellence. The term psychopathy is often used to emphasize that the source of the disorder is internal, based on psychological, biological, or genetic factors, whereas sociopathy is used to emphasize predominant social factors in the disorder: The social or familial sources of its development and the inability to be social or abide by societal rules (Hare, 1999). Psychopaths and sociopaths are often able to manage their condition and pass as “normal” citizens, although their capacity for manipulation and cruelty can have devastating consequences for people around them. In clinical analysis, these analytical categories should be distinguished from psychosis, which is a condition involving a debilitating break with reality. Psychopathy and sociopathy both refer to personality disorders that involve anti-social behaviour, diminished empathy, and lack of inhibitions. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs to Dexter Morgan in Dexter, the figure of the dangerous individual who lives among us provides a fascinating fictional figure. From Patrick Bateman in American Psycho to Dr.


Psychopaths and sociopaths are some of the favourite “deviants” in contemporary popular culture. Introduction to Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

Describe the functionalist view of deviance in society including social disorganization theory, control theory, and strain theory.Understand social control as forms of government including penal social control, discipline, and risk management.ħ.2.Differentiate between different methods of social control.Determine why certain behaviours are defined as deviant while others are not.Define deviance and categorize different types of deviant behaviour.
